For the past several months, the Bay Area (like other left-leaning regions around the country) has been plastered with stickers, signs and posters advertising a movement called "The World Can't Wait," which was to have its grand unveiling on November 2, 2005, the one-year anniversary of Bush's election (or non-election, depending on whom you ask).

Though it was promoted as a mainstream uprising to toss Bush out of office, many of the people I observed handing out flyers advertising the November 2 rally were well-known members of the local chapter of The Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), a cultish political group devoted to the teachings of Chairman Mao.

Sure enough, several weeks ago bloggers began pointing out the connection, and it was even noted on Wikipedia that "The World Can't Wait" (WCW) was founded by the RCP. After the RCP started promoting WCW on its own Web site, the cat was out of the bag; even the San Francisco Chronicle (perhaps stung by criticisms of their failure to fully divulge the nature of earlier anti-war protests) had no choice but to join the chorus of outlets acknowledging that WCW was nothing more than a front for the RCP.

I was ready to write off WCW as a fringe political fantasy with delusions of grandeur, when I noticed that its official list of endorsers included celebrities such as Cindy Sheehan, Gore Vidal, Ed Asner, Alice Walker, Harold Pinter, Eve Ensler, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Rickie Lee Jones, Casey Kasem, Ron Kovic, Studs Terkel, Cornel West, and Howard Zinn; local politicians such as Tom Ammiano and Chris Daly (San Francisco Board of Supervisors), and Mark Leno (California Assemblyman); activist groups such as ANSWER and Code Pink; and many others.

Were all of these people aware that they were endorsing a Maoist group's call for revolution? Or do they just sign whatever politically correct petition that arrives in their In box, without bothering to research it?

November 2 arrived. I decided to find out.